I offered soup to Jho Low when he was sick: Najib’s ex-banker

1MDB TRIAL | Ex-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s former banker testified that she once offered soup for 1MDB-linked fugitive Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) when the latter fell sick.

However, former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu denied that this compromised her ability to act objectively with her client Low.

The 41st prosecution witness was giving oral evidence during this afternoon’s RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial against former finance minister Najib.

The accused’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was cross-examining Yu over the nature of her relationship with Low (above), whom she knew two years before the formation of 1MDB’s predecessor Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) in 2009.

In previous proceedings before the Kuala Lumpur High Court, she testified that she was close to Low in a professional capacity sparked by the bank’s loan deal with a company called Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd.

She told the court she visited Low at his luxury apartment at the 8 Kia Peng serviced residence in Kuala Lumpur.

During cross-examination before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah today, Shafee was grilling Yu over her visiting Low at the businessperson’s apartment, contending that she could have just arranged to meet Low at her office at AmBank.

She testified that she visited Low at the 8 Kia Peng apartment as the latter allegedly kept dodging the bank’s attempt to get loan repayment from the latter in the Majestic Masterpiece loan agreement.

Yu claimed the loan was overdue but Low was constantly out of town and most of the time refused to meet her and her team to cough up the repayment.

Shafee then made reference to an alleged transcript of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) between her and Low.

Shafee: That is not true. There was a time that Jho Low was sick, and you cooked food for him.

Yu: That is not true. I merely offered food when he was sick.

Shafee: No bank ever offered me that, and I live next to the bank.

Yu: Maybe it was my motherly instinct.

Shafee: Is it appropriate for you to offer soup to your client?

Yu: There was no intention for anything.

Shafee: Is it appropriate?

Yu: I would assist anyone.

When Sequerah asked what was the purpose of this line of cross-examination, Shafee asserted that the defence team wished to highlight the contention that some of the wrongdoing related to 1MDB was allowed to happen due to compromised objectivity on the part of the bankers.

When the lawyer grilled Yu about whether she allowed herself to get so close to the businessperson that she lost objective assessment of the situation, she denied this.

Yu also denied Shafee’s contention that she and the bank received an undue benefit from being allegedly involved in an arrangement that saw TIA lose money in a financial transaction back in 2009.

Previously during trial proceedings in 2019, 1MDB’s former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi testified that Low-linked companies made around RM74 million “out of thin air” by flipping TIA bonds in 2009.

The ninth prosecution witness claimed these companies - Aktis Capital Singapore Pte Ltd and Country Group Securities Pcl - entered into an agreement with Ambank to purchase TIA’s Islamic medium-term note (IMTN) at a 12 percent discount.

Shahrol then testified that TIA was among the losers of the bond flip, with Shafee then also contending that the bond flipping resulted in the bonds being resold at par value to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organisation (Socso) and causing these two statutory bodies to suffer financially as a result.

The 1MDB trial proceeding before Sequerah is scheduled to continue tomorrow morning.

Yu was one of the key prosecution witnesses during Najib’s previous RM42 million SRC International corruption trial. The BBM chats between her and Low were also tendered during that trial.

During the SRC trial, Najib’s lawyers cross-examined her for several weeks and at one point, Yu reportedly cried while on the witness stand.

Najib is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence over the SRC case, with the accused being brought to court by Kajang Prison authorities to attend his various ongoing criminal trials, which include the 1MDB case.

In relation to the ongoing 1MDB trial against Najib, Yu testified that she never met the accused directly over his bank account and that Low wanted several so-called Arab letters to be kept secret.

The alleged Arab letters refer to several documents Najib purportedly relied on to prove that Middle Eastern royals promised him a donation.

25 charges

In relation to the 1MDB trial before Sequerah, Najib is facing four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion from 1MDB.

For the four abuse of power charges, the former Pekan MP was alleged to have committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Berhad’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.

On the 21 money laundering counts, Najib was purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.

The prosecution contended that the wrongdoing at 1MDB was carried out by Low and several others with Najib’s blessing.

However, the accused’s defence team claimed Najib had no knowledge of the crime perpetrated at 1MDB and that Low as well as other members of the fund’s management had masterminded the embezzlement.

Initially a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC later became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc). MOF Inc is also the full owner of 1MDB.

Najib also used to be adviser emeritus to SRC as well as chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers.

Najib's daughter wants live broadcast of judicial review in spirit of 'openness'

1MDB: I was close with Jho Low - Najib's former banker

Anti-graft provision aims to stamp out corruption - Sri Ram

AGC not appealing against ruling to return luxury items to Najib, Rosmah